An Interview with Actress Scarlett O'Neil

You may not recognise the name "Scarlett O'Neil," but I suspect in a few years you will. Scarlett O'Neil is a talented young actress who has already appeared in commercials, short subjects, independent films, and in the major motion picture Piranha 3D.  Following is my interview with this up and coming star.

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Terence: Now many people might think you were named for the old comic strip character, Invisible Scarlett O'Neil, but that's not the case. Who were you named for?

Scarlett: Actually, a lot of people think I was named after Scarlett Johanssen. I'm not sure why. She is only a few years older than me, so that wouldn't make much sense. I'm glad I'm not named after her. I'm not convinced that's even her real name. Anyway, I was named after Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With the Wind. My mom loves that movie. My older sister is named Tara after the plantation, and my younger sister is Bonnie B from Scarlett's daughter. Out of the three names, I personally think I have the best one. It's also funny because I was the only one of the sisters that has brown hair like Scarlett O'Hara.

Terence: How did you become interested in acting? And have you always wanted to be an actress?

Scarlett: I've wanted to be an actress as long as I can remember. I was watching the Rugrats one day when I was little, and it came to me that I needed to act. It was really strange how suddenly that feeling came over me, and it's been with me ever since. I want to act because it's another world. It's a world of fantasy where anything can happen, and I love that. That is the only reason I've modelled as well. Modelling is acting without words to me. I don't consider myself to be a hot swimsuit model, but I can pretend to be and it works.

Terence: What have you done so far as movies and the stage?

Scarlett: I've done more theatre than film. I acted in a lot of school plays during high school, and I did a few church stories in college. I can't really remember the first film I did. Isn't that strange? My first photo shoot was when I was 18 years old, and I was acting officially soon after that. I was featured in Piranha 3D, and I have done countless independent films such as Monique and Hollywood Gamble. Hollywood Gamble was my first film that I made in LA, and I hope to make many more soon. My main goal is to act in film, but I wouldn't mind acting in television as well. I've been meeting with casting directors so hopefully something good will happen soon.

Terence: Are there any arts besides acting that you have pursued, such as writing, singing, dancing, etc.?

Scarlett: I haven't pursued anything else as a career if that's what you mean. I'm not sure if modelling counts, but modeling was never my dream job. I do that to build a fan base, and it does help me get noticed from casting directors. I do love to write though. I have a lot of followers on fanfiction, but I try to keep that world separate from my acting world. I love to write. I also love to dance and sing. I did Irish dancing when I was younger, but I prefer ballet. I also love horseback riding.

Terence: What movies have inspired you in your life?

Scarlett: That's a hard one. I don't know if any movies have actually inspired me. I know that certain people have, and stories throughout history inspire me every day, but I don't know about a film. I think all movies are amazing. When you sit back and think about it, we are actually watching real people through a little box in our family rooms. That really is mind bobbling, and I'm sure if we traveled back in time 100 years, people would never have believed that this could really happen.

Terence: Is there any particular genre of movie in which you would prefer to act?

Scarlett: It doesn't matter to me at all. I'll act in anything. My favourite genre right now is horror, but that is because I am trying to find a movie that will really scare me. Casting directors have told me time and time again that I am perfect for the girlfriend type, and so I will probably be playing a lot of those. I'm also double jointed in both arms which basically means I can break my arms on command. Horror movie directors LOVE that. In every horror film I've done, the director was like, "In this scene, we're going to break your arms". It's classic.

Terence: What actors have inspired you in your career?

Scarlett: Well, my favourite actress is Vivien Leigh. If she didn't play Scarlett, I might not have gotten my name. She was a brilliant actress, and she was beautiful. She took acting seriously, and she wanted to act since she was a child as well. I also love Lillian Gish simply because she was one of the first actresses to perform on film, and she was talented. I think I am partial towards the old actors like Buster Keaton and Mary Pickford simply because they were the first. I also love Judy Garland and Clark Gable. As for the newer actors, I think Nicole Kidman and Catherine Zeta Jones are amazing. Alex Reid from England (Beth from The Descent) has a promising career, and Johnny Depp continues to inspire me in everything he is in. I also love Matthew Gray Gubler, but that might be because he is adorable. =)

Terence: Okay, now for the big question. How many times have you seen Gone With the Wind?

Scarlett: Does anyone really want to know that? I think I have seen it more times than I can count which is sad seeing as the movie is over 3 hours long. I also have the behind the scenes edition, photographs, letters from set, interviews, and the dolls. Isn't that fun?

Terence: Any closing thoughts?

Scarlett: I had a fun time with this interview. The questions were interesting, and I love to talk about movies. Any of the readers can feel free to add me on Facebook, MySpace, or follow me on Twitter. Just look up my name and I am the one and only. =)

xoxo

The Late Great Farley Granger

Farley Granger, who appeared in such films as Rope (1948), They Live By Night (1949), and Strangers on a Train (1951), passed at the age of 85 on 27 March 2011.

Farley Granger was born on 1 July 1925 in San Jose, California. The family moved to Los Angeles after the stock market crash of 1929 killed his father's car dealership. It was his mother who pushed young Farley Granger into entertainment, in hopes that he would become a tap dancer. He was not yet 18 when he appeared in the play The Wookie in which both Samuel Goldwyn and Lillian Hellman noticed him. He then found himself making his film debut in Hellman's The North Star (1943) at the tender age of 17. It was followed by Lewis Milestone's The Purple Heart (1944).

Farley Granger's acting career was interrupted by a stint in the Navy during World War II. Unlike many actors the war did not hinder his career. In fact, after being demobilised he found himself cast in one of his best known films by the most famous director he was ever to work with. The film was Rope (1948). The director was Alfred Hitchcock. He would be directed by another notable director, Nicholas Ray, in the classic They Live By Night (1949) before Mr. Hitchcock would use him again in Strangers on a Train (1951). In between these films he appeared in such movies as Enchantment (1948), Side Street (1950), and Edge of Doom (1950).

Sadly, Mr. Granger was not able to capitalise on his success in such films as Rope, They Live By Night, and Strangers on a Train, largely because of the roles Samuel Goldwyn chose for him. Appearing in such films as Behave Yourself (1951) and Hans Christian Andersen (1952), Farley Granger bought out his contract with Samuel Goldwyn in 1953. For the remainder of the Fifties Farley Granger appeared in the Italian film Senso (1954), The Naked Street (1955), and as Harry Kendall Thaw in The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955). He began to appear more and more on television, appearing in such series as Schlitz Playhouse, The 20th Century Fox Hour, Climax, Wagon Train, and The United States Steel Hour.

Sadly, the Fifties would be the only decade in which Farley Granger would be a matinee idol. The Sixties saw him performing on stage and appearing on television. He appeared in such series as Run For Your Life, Ironside, Get Smart, Hondo, The Name of the Game, and Hawaii Five-O. He appeared in the films Guerilla Strike Force (1970) and the spaghetti Western comedy My Name is Trinity (1970). In the Seventies Farley Granger would appear in more films, but they were most often of the low budget variety. He appeared in the films Something is Crawling in the Dark (1971), Amuck (1972), The Red Headed Corpse (1972), The Serpent (1973), The Man Called Noon (1973), Arnold (1973), and Savage City (1974). He also appeared in the TV series Nakia, Ellery Queen, The Invisible Man, One Life to Live, and The Edge of Night.

From the Eighties into the Naughts Farley Granger appeared in such films as The Prowler (1981), Death Mask (1984), Very Close Quarters (1986), The Imagemaker (1986), and The Next Big Thing (2001). He appeared on such shows as Tales from the Darkside and Murder, She Wrote.

Farley Granger was an actor whose career should have been bigger than it was. His heyday, roughly from 1948 to 1957, was all too brief. He obviously had a good deal of talent, enough to play a variety of roles. He could play the sympathetic protagonist, tennis pro Guy Haines, in Strangers on Train, but then turn around and play jealous and not quite sane husband Harry Kendall Thaw in Girl on the Red Velvet Swing. Even when he was doing low budget movies in the Seventies, Farley Granger was still an actor capable of good performances. He proved this playing none too honest lawyer Evan Lyons in the cult film Arnold. It seems likely that had Mr. Granger received better roles early in his career, he could have kept up the momentum in his career built up by Rope, They Live By Night, and Strangers on a Train. He certainly had the talent to do so.

Sir Dirk Bogarde's 90th Birthday

It was 90 years ago today that actor and novelist Sir Dirk Bogarde was born. In his native Britain he would become the number one box office star of the Fifties and there he remains a household name. In the United States, Sir Dirk Bogarde is not a household name, yet chances are good that most Americans have seen at least one movie starring the actor.

Sir Dirk Bogarde was born Derek van den Bogaerde in Hampstead, London. Given his parents' occupations, it was perhaps inevitable that young Dirk would go into some artistic field. His father, Ulric van den Bogaerde, was art editor for The Times. His mother, Margaret Niven, had been an actress. As surprising as it may be, Sir Dirk Bogarde was not set to go into acting as a young man. After attending Allen Glen's School in Glasgow and University College School in London, he attended the Chelsea College of Art and Design with the intent of becoming a commercial artist. While he would work as a commercial artist and scenic designer in the Thirties, young Dirk would abandon art for acting.


Sir Dirk Bogarde studied acting with the Amersham Repertory Company, It was in 1939 that he made his debut on the West end in the play Cornelius. At the time he was billed as Derek Bogaerde. It would also be in 1939 that he would make his film debut, in an uncredited role as an extra in Come On George (1939). His acting career would be interrupted by World War II, in which he served in the Queen's Royal Regiment. Following the war, he returned to acting. It would be his agent who give him the name by which he would become known, "Dirk Bogarde." He was signed by the Rank Organisation, but it would be Wessex Films which would give him his first leading role. Stuart Granger had been set to star in Sin of Esther Waters. Mr. Granger would drop out of the production, after which Wessex Films cast Sir Dirk Bogarde in the role. Following Sin of Esther Waters the Rank Organisation signed Sir Dirk Bogarde to a long term contract.

Sir Dirk Bogarde would play a number of different roles for the Rank Organisation, but it would be the comedy Doctor in the House (1954) which would make him a star. The first of the "Doctor" series, Mr. Bogarde played Simon Sparrow, a role he would reprise in three more films. Appearing in such films as The Sleeping Tiger (1954),  A Tale of Two Cities (1958) , and Libel (1959), he became a major star in the United Kingdom, the number one box office draw of the Fifties in that country. He would continue with a string of successes in the Sixties, becoming one of the most respected actors in the world.

Sir Dirk Bogarde's success was most like due to his skill as an actor. It is true that he was a handsome leading man type. Indeed, when people think of a Dirk Bogarde character, it is a charming, sophisticated Englishman that is most likely to come to mind. That having been said, throughout his career Sir Dirk Bogarde played a variety of roles, many as different from each other as night and day. While he became known for playing the charming Dr. Simon Sparrow in the "Doctor" series, Sir Dirk Bogarde was capable of playing characters who were not at all likeable. This is most obvious in The Night Porter (1974), in which he played a former and still quite sadistic S.S. officer. He would also play a rather sadistic Nazi in the controversial film The Damned (1969). Here it must be pointed out that while these characters are not at all likeable, they are hardly cardboard villains. Like any other character, Sir Dirk Bogarde made them three dimensional. Indeed, Sir Dirk Bogarde could go from likeable to somewhat unlikeable in the course of one film. The Mind Benders (1963) features one of his most impressive performances. While Dr. Henry Longman is a fairly likeable fellow at the beginning of the film, he is not quite so likeable by the film's end (I cannot say more without spoiling the plot).

While Sir Dirk Bogarde is often regarded as a British Cary Grant or a British Rock Hudson, he was quite capable of playing the average Englishman. In the comedy Hot Enough for June (1964) he played Nicholas Whistler, who is not only a rather average Englishman but something of a slacker. When he finds himself in the middle of spy intrigue, he does not suddenly develop skills he did not realise he had, but instead reacts as the average person would--that is, he is bewildered, confused, and scared. In Accident (1967) Sir Dirk Bogarde played an Oxford professor going through a mid-life crisis. Sir Dirk Bogarde could quite as easily play such average Englishmen as he could the more villainous or heroic types.

Of course, Sir Dirk Bogarde played his fair share of heroes. Perhaps none is more notable than Sydney Carton in the 1958 version of A Tale of Two Cities. Here Sir Dirk Bogarde plays a man who was something of a reprobate and slacker, but who in the end finds it in himself to make the ultimate sacrifice. While Ronald Colman had played Carton in 1935 version, arguably Sir Dirk Bogarde's Sidney Carton is the most impressive. In The Password is Courage played Sergeant Major Charles Coward, a real life British officer who plotted an escape from a German prisoner of war camp during World War II.

Here it must be pointed out that Sir Dirk Bogarde was not only an actor. In later years he would also become a successful author. Starting with A Postillion Struck by Lightning, Sir Dirk Bogarde wrote several memoirs and autobiographies. In 1980 his first novel, A Gentle Occupation, would be published. It would be followed by five more.

Sir Dirk Bogarde was an extremely talented and versatile actor, who played a wide variety of roles in his lifetime. He was also a successful writer and novelist, proving that he had more talents than acting. It is a shame that he is not better known in the United States, as I rather suspect he was more talented than many better known actors here. Few actors could play a heroic figure in one film, a base villain in another, and an average bloke in yet another. Sir Dirk Bogarde played them all.

Houdini's Assistant Dorothy Young Passes On

Dorothy Young, who served as Houdini's stage assistant for one year on tour, passed on March 20 at the age of 103.

Dorothy Young was born on 3 May 1907 in Otisville, New York. Her father was a minister and her mother a church organist. In Manhattan, at only the age of 17 in 1925 she won an audition to be Houdini's stage assistant. Miss Young shared the stage with Houdini, possibly the most famous magician and escape artist of all time, and his wife Bess. Sadly, Houdini would pass in 1926. In that year, however, people did take notice of Miss Young. A skilled dancer, she teamed up with Gilbert Kiamie and toured the country as a dancing team called Gilbert and Dorothy. She would later dance in a few movies, including Flying Down to Rio (1933).

Miss Young would outlive both Houdini and his wife Bess. Houdini died in 1926 of peritonitis. Bess Houdini died of a heart attack in 1943. Even decades after the death of Houdini and his wife, Dorothy Young would not reveal the secrets of how Houdini performed his illusions. She said in an interview with the PBS series American Experience, "I was sworn to secrecy, never to divulge any of Houdini's secrets."

Surviving Stars From the Golden Age of Hollywood

Yesterday's passing of Dame Elizabeth Taylor saw a huge number of well deserved tributes in the media. Unfortunately, many of these tributes treated Miss Taylor as if she was last, sole remaining star from the Golden Age of Hollywood (which I say was roughly from 1930 to 1960). This is hardly the case. There are several other stars from the Golden Age who are still alive and some of them even matched Dame Elizabeth Taylor in the level of their stardom.

Here, then, is a short list of surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood. It is by no means complete, but it does demonstrate that many of our favourite actors from the Thirties, Forties, and Fifties are still alive.

Arlene Dahl (August 11, 1925): MGM contract star  who appeared in Life with Father, Reign of Terror, and other films.

Doris Day (born April 3, 1922): Still the biggest female box office star of all time. She starred in musicals such as April in Paris and Calamity Jane in the Fifties, but made her biggest impact in Sixties sex comedies such as Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back.

Olivia de Havilland (born July 1, 1916): The only surviving lead from Gone with the Wind. She co-starred with Errol Flynn in Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and several other films.

Joan Fontaine (born Joan de Havilland October 22, 1917): Olivia de Havilland's younger sister and a star in her own right. She appeared in Gunga Din, Hitchcock's Suspicion, the 1944 version of Jane Eyre, and many other classic films. Sadly, it seems Olivia and Joan have maintained their well known feud to this day.

Kirk Douglas (born December 9, 1916): One of the greatest action stars of all time. He starred in such films as Champion, 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Vikings, Spartacus, and many other films.

Zsa Zsa Gabor (born February 6, 1917): Never a major star, but always the archetypal celebrity, Zsa Zsa appeared in such films as Moulin Rouge (1952), Lili, Gigi, and Boys Night Out.

Angela Lansbury (born October 16, 1925):  A memorable supporting actress who appeared in such films as Gaslight, Samson and Delilah, The Long Hot Summer, and many other films. She is probably best known now as Jessica Fletcher on the show Murder, She Wrote.

Maureen O'Hara (born  August 17, 1920): Irish actress and major star, Maureen starred in everything from pirate movies (The Black Swan) to Westerns (McLintock!) to holiday classics (Miracle on 34th Street) to family comedies (The Parent Trap). She was also my mother's favourite actress of all time besides Marilyn Monroe.

Jane Powell (born April 1, 1929) : MGM contract player who appeared in such films as Royal Wedding, A Date with Judy, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

Debbie Reynolds (April 1, 1932): Gene Kelly's co-star in Singin' in the Rain, as well as the star of  Tammy and the Bachelor. She appeared in such films as The Catered Affair and The Unsinkable Molly Brown. She is still acting.

Mickey Rooney  (born September 23, 1920): Andy Hardy himself, as well as the star of several MGM musicals. He is still acting, making memorable appearance in Night at the Museum.

Ann Rutherford (born November 2, 1920): Scarlett O'Hara's youngest sister in Gone With the Wind and Andy Hardy's long suffering girl friend

Ester Williams (born August 8, 1921): Champion competitive swimmer and star of MGM musicals.

Godspeed Dame Elizabeth Taylor

Screen legend Dame Elizabeth Taylor passed today at the age of 79. The cause was complications from congestive heart failure. She had been in poor health for many years.

Dame Elizabeth Taylor was born in London on 27 February 1932 to American parents. Her father was an art dealer. Her mother had acted on the stage in New York. Miss Taylor spent her early childhood in England. Her family moved to Pasadena, California shortly before World War II.

Her mother loved the movies and it was Miss Taylor's mother who encouraged her to act. She made an impressive film debut at the age of 9 in the film There's One Born Every Minute (1942), playing Gloria Twine. Signed to a contract with Universal, it was cancelled less than six months later, in February 1942. In October of that year MGM signed the young actress. Her first film for MGM would be Lassie Come Home (1943). She was loaned to  20th Century Fox to play Helen Burns in the 1944 adaptation of Jane Eyre, and went to England to appear in The White Cliffs of Dover (1944). Cast as Velvet Brown in National Velvet (1944) at MGM, Elizabeth Taylor attained stardom at the tender age of 12. Over the next few years she would appear in such films as Courage of Lassie (1946), Life with Father (1947), A Date with Father (1948), and Little Women (1948).

Little Women would be the last film in which Dame Elizabeth Taylor played an adolescent. While The Big Hangover (1950), in which she played her first adult role, was a failure, her next film, Father of the Bride (1950), would be a huge success. The film would prove successful enough to produce a sequel, also starring Miss Taylor, Father's Little Dividend (1951). The Fifties would prove to be a good decade for Dame Elizabeth Taylor. She appeared in such films as A Place in the Sun (1951), Ivahoe (1952), Beau Brummell (1953), The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954), Giant (1956), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and Butterfield 8 (1960).

Miss Taylor's career declined slightly in the Sixties, perhaps due to the failure of the extremely expensive Cleopatra (1963). She appeared in such films as  The Sandpiper (1965), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woof (1966), The Taming of the Shrew (1967), Doctor Faustus (1967), The Comedians (1967), and The Only Game in Town (1970). In the Seventies she appeared in such films as X, Y, and Zee (1972), Ash Wednesday (1973), A Little Night Music (1977), and The Mirror Crack'd (1980). She made her television debut in the TV movie Divorce Hers-Divorce His and appeared in a presentation of The Hallmark Hall of Fame.

From the Eighties into the Nineties most of Dame Elizabeth Taylor's work was in television. She appeared in such shows as General Hospital, Hotel, All My Children, and the mini-series North and South. She also appeared in the telefilms Malice in Wonderland (as Louella Parsons) and Poker Alice. She provided the voice of Maggie in a memorable episode of The Simpsons, as was a guest voice on God, The Devil, and Bob (her last work) as well. She appeared in the film Il giovane Toscanini (1988). She also appeared on Broadway, in The Little Foxes, Private Lives, and The Corn is Green.

In 1999, Miss Taylor was knighted as Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Coverage of Dame Elizabeth Taylor's passing has made much of her personal life, her marriages and her poor health. Coverage of her passing has also made much of her beauty. And while there can be no doubt that Elizabeth Taylor was indeed beautiful (she had the most remarkable, violet eyes), it seems to me that the various media outlets have overlooked what made Dame Elizabeth Taylor a star to begin with--her acting. While the movies in which Dame Elizabeth Taylor appeared were not always the best, more often than not she gave very fine performances. For myself it is her earliest performances that stand out the best. She was convincing as Velvet Brown in National Velvet (no doubt helped by the fact that she was already an experienced rider) and she was convincing as Leslie Benedict in Giant. And while I enjoyed her early performances most, Miss Taylor was still an acting talent to be reckoned with in later years. She was impressive as gossip columnist Louella Parsons in the TV movie Malice in Wonderland.

Dame Elizabeth Taylor was hardly the last of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Sisters Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine are still alive, as are Kirk Douglas and several others. That having been said, she was perhaps one of the most recognisable names from the Golden Age where the general public was concerned. In some respects it may not be  refer to Dame Elizabeth Taylor a star or even a legend. She long ago transcended being either a star or a legend to become an icon.

When Stars Go "Bad"

One would very nearly have to be on a deserted island to avoid hearing Charlie Sheen's name mentioned several times a day on the news on TV, on talk shows, and in newspapers and magazines. Indeed, in February Sheen made derogatory comments about the producer of Two and A Half Men, Chuck Lorre, which some thought were tinged with anti-Semitism. The result of this was CBS and  Warner Brothers and CBS fired him from the hit sitcom. That having been said, given the history of actors and scandals, I rather suspect that had this taken place fifty years ago, Sheen could have already been fired.

Indeed, it was in 1921 that comedy star Fatty Arbuckle was accused of the rape and murder of starlet Virginia Rappe. While Fatty Arbuckle was eventually acquitted at the following trial, his career would never recover. Although friends such as Buster Keaton would send some directorial work his way, he was more or less blacklisted in the Hollywood community. He died in 1933 at the age of 46 a broken man. The scandal surrounding Fatty Arbuckele would also lead to the creation of the infamous "morality clause," that part of a star's contract forbidding them from doing anything immoral, even if wasn't necessarily illegal.

Fatty Arbuckle would not be the only actor whose career would suffer from scandal. In 1941 Lionel Atwill was accused of holding sex orgies at his home. In 1942 he was convicted of perjury in the trail regarding the alleged orgies. Lionel Atwill continued to act, but his career would never be the same. Perhaps no star suffered as great a fall from grace as Ingrid Bergman. One of the biggest stars in Hollywood, Ingrid Bergman had begun an affair with director Roberto Rosellini while filming Stromboli in 1950. In 1951 she was pregnant with his child. While this might seem minor today, in the Fifties it became a cause célèbre in the United States.She was even denounced on the floor of the U. S. Senate. Ed Sullivan even cancelled her appearance on his show. Effectively blacklisted by Hollywood, Miss Bergman would spend her next several years in Italy, where she continued to make movies. She would not return to Hollywood until 1956 when she appeared in Anastasia

Indeed, in past years even the movies one made could end his or her career. Michael Powell had been one of the top British directors from the Forties into the Fifties. He had directed such classic films as Thief of Baghdad (1940) and The Red Shoes (1948). It was in 1960 that his film Peeping Tom was released. Now regarded as a classic, the movie was regarded by many British critics as a base exploitation film at best and outright pornography at worst. Backlash against the film was so great that it effectively ended Mr. Powell's career in the United Kingdom.

Of course, there were stars who survived scandal. Mary Astor had just started shooting Dodsworth (1936) when her husband Dr. Franklin Thorpe threatened to reveal the contents of her diary, which allegedly told of her many affairs, as evidence in the custody battle between the two. Because of the morality clause in her contract, producer Samuel Goldwyn was urged to fire her. He stood by Miss Astor, however, as did the public. As to the diary, it was never made public. In 1942 Errol Flynn was accused of statutory rape by two under age girls. Like Fatty Arbuckle before him, Flynn was cleared of any charges. Unlike Fatty Arbuckle, Errol Flynn's career did not suffer because of the scandal. It was in 1948 that Robert Mitchum and Lila Leeds were arrested for possession of marijuana, something much more scandalous then than it is now. Mr. Mitchum served a week in the county jail, but the arrest did little to hurt his career. The studio simply warned Robert Mitchum to straighten up. It would in 1951 that the conviction would be overturned by the Los Angeles District Attorney's office.

I suppose the whole point of this is that there has been little consistency in the film industry with regards to scandal. Fatty Arbuckle was acquitted and there seems to have been no real evidence to connect him with the rape and murder of Virginia Rappe, but his career went down in flames. Errol Flynn was acquitted and there was no real evidence that he had committed statutory rape with the two girls, but his career continued to thrive. Mary Astor's extramarital affairs came to light with no negative impact on her career, while Ingrid Bergman's affair with Roberto Rosellini nearly ended hers. Here it must be pointed out that the popularity of these stars seems to have played no role in surviving scandals. Admittedly Errol Flynn was a huge star in 1942, but so was Fatty Arbuckle in 1920 (in fact, he made more money than Charlie Chaplin). And Ingrid Bergman was a much bigger star in 1950 than Mary Astor ever was, especially in 1936. It is difficult to say why some stars are so damaged by scandal and others are not, as there seems to be no real consistency in the matter.

As to Charlie Sheen, I rather suspect if not for the more lax morality of our times, he would have been fired long ago. My reasoning is simply that Sheen's misbehaviour has gone far beyond extramarital affairs or smoking pot. He has had problems with alcohol and drugs for some time. Even in the Golden Age of Hollywood this could have been overlooked, but it seem obvious that Sheen's problems went beyond alcohol and drugs. As far back as 1996 he was arrested for assaulting then girlfriend Brittany Ashland. In 2006 then wife Denise Richards accused him of physical and mental abuse. In 2009 he was arrested on suspicition of second degree assault in an altercation with then wife Brooke Mueller. In October 2010 he was taken into custody after causing $7000 in damage at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.

That brings us to this year, when Charlie Sheen criticised the producers of Two and a Half Men and began his sometimes incoherent tirades. As if his past behaviour was not frightening enough, his tirades can be even more frightening. Indeed, they remind me of the tapes of individuals with schizophrenia and other mental disorders we listened to in my psychology class. Whether simply because of his drug use or some underlying mental condition, it seems obvious to me that Sheen is not a well man. This especially seems quite likely after the various incidents of the past many years, incidents that have gone far beyond things that have gotten actors fired in the past.

Now I will admit that I am not a big fan of morality clauses in contracts. Quite simply, I think people's views of what is moral and what is immoral vary so what one might find objectionable another might find perfectly acceptable. That having been said, I think Charlie Sheen's behaviour the past many years has gone far beyond simply being immoral to being downright dangerous, both to himself and those around him. While I do not condone adultery, the extramarital affairs actors and actresses may have had in the past are in no way comparable to what Sheen has done. I rather suspect that even if he had lived and been a huge star in, say, 1939, and behaved in the same way, he would have been out of a job long ago. Sadly, it seems there is a rumour that Warner Brothers wants to talk to Sheen about returning to his sitcom. I think this could be a big mistake, at least until he seeks some serious, professional help.